Illuminating contrivance.



Patented Dec. 26, !8991 No. &39,724.

H. GANTKE.

ILLUMINATING CONTRIVANCE.

(Application filed Dec. 20, 1898.)

(No Model.)

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Zafina 1 UNITED STATES PATENT rricne HUGO GANTKE, OF BERLIN, GERMANY.

ILLUMINATING CONTRIVANCE.

SPECIFICATION formngpart of Letters Patent No. 639,'724, dated December 26, 1899. 'Application filed December 20, 1898. Serial No, %99,880. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it muy concern: r

Be it known that LHJGO GANTKE,engineer, a subject of the King of Prussia, German Emperor, residing at 15 Novalisstrasse, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire, have invented new and useful Improvements in Illuminating Contrivances, of which the following is a specification.

All the various means or contrivances for illuminating the inside of shopwindows, whether arranged at the top or bottom, employed up to the present time suffer from the great drawback that the illuminant is considerably removed from the article to be illuminated and that in view of the various ways proposed and employed for arranging the illuminant all those parts of the article which are right in front of the spectator are not illuminated.

The object of the present invention is a special arrangement'of the illuminant or illuminants employed for showing purposes, so that the illuminant is Situated between the spectator and the article to be advertised or illuminated.

A further object of the invention is to bring 'the illuminant as near as possible to the artiele or articles to be illuminated. As a result thereof a considerably greater illuminating eifect will be attained with illuminants than was heretofore possible, or illuminants of reduced power may be employed for attaining effects equal to those of the illuminant when employed in the old fashion.

WVith these ends in View the invention consists in certain novel features of Construction and combination of parts hereinafter described, and the essential elements of which are recited in the appended claim.

In order that the inventio may be clearly understood, I will proceed to describe the same fully by aid of the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows an elevation of an illuminant from inside the shop-window. Fig. 2 is a cross-section on line 00 x of Fig. 1. Figs. 3 to 7 illustrate various modifications and details. Fig. 8 shows a front elevation of an illuminant as arranged at a shop-window,

and Fig. 9 shows a cross-section of the arrangement illustrated in Fig. 8.

The illuminating contrivance consists of the bar a, provided with a reflecting inner surface, to which, by mean-s of screws b and suitable brackets c, the illuminants, preferably electric glow lam ps d, are fastened. The bulbs of the glow lamps d are advantageously of tubular shape, as illustrated in the drawings. Any othersuitable and desirable shape of bulbs may, however, be employed. The bar a may be of angular, round, or any other suitable cross-section, the surface facing the observer being advantageously ornamented or decorated to present an appearance pleasant to the eye, and instead of having the bar a constructed so as to possess a refiectingsurface special reflectors e may be employed. These refiectors care fastened to the bar a by any suitable means-such, for instance, as screws F-which would preferably be inserted immediately behind the lamps d. The details and modifications shown in Figs. 2 to 6 demonstrate that the reflectors e may either be provided with plane or curved surfaces, whereby the dispersion of the rays of light increases as the reflecting-surface approaches a plane, isa plane, or, finally, is conveX. The refiector may be of any suitable material, the term refiector as used in the present specification denominating light-reflecting surfaces in general. The reflecting-surface may also be unpolished.

The illuminating contrivance is fixed in position in the following manner: A bar a, mounted with the ill uminants d, is Suspended on both sides of the window, at the inside of the latter, by means of chains f of suitable and variable length, which chains fare secured to the bar a by being hooked into a hole g or by other suitable means, on the one hand, and to a rack 'L', fast on the windowframe on either side of the window h, on the other hand. Therack 'iis provided with a series of holes for the purpose, which, moreover, enables the height of the bars to be varied by the hook Z of the ohain 70 engaging in a higher or lower hole.

The illuminating contrivance may also be fixed in a perpendicular or inclined direction, although I havefound the horizontal position to be the most advantageous one. The improved illuninating eontrivance may also be employed for the illumination of ornamental oeilings, walls, or like surfeces, pictures, signs, focas, and the like.

Having now particularly described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In illuminating contrivances for shop-windows or the like having the ilhminants placed between the object to be observed and the observer, in combination, a reflecting-bar a of any desired cross-section having the illuininants,suitable electrio glow lanps with bulbs of tubular shape, arranged at the inside unnoticeable to the observer; a chain f fast to either end of said bar; a rack t' seeured on r the Window-f'eme on either side of the win- HUGO GANTKE.

XVitnesses:

C. H. DAY, HENRY HASPER. 

